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7th Circuit nominee faces questions about motions backlog

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 25, 2024, 3:33 pm CDT

A nominee to a federal appeals court based in Chicago defended her record as a district judge when Republican senators criticized her case backlogs during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Maldonado of the Northern District of Illinois has the seventh-highest backlog of motions pending for at least six months among all federal judges at the trial level, Republicans said during the hearing. She currently has 125 pending motions.

Law360, Courthouse News Service and Reuters have coverage.

Maldonado has been nominated to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Chicago. If confirmed, she would be the first Hispanic judge on the 7th Circuit.

Maldonado’s motions backlog is worse than any other district judge in the 7th Circuit, Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana said during the hearing. According to Reuters, Kennedy asked: “You really think of all the other district judges in the 7th Circuit, you’re the one that ought to be promoted based on this record?”

Maldonado said she was assigned about 300 cases with pending motions when she became a federal judge in August 2022, and her caseload increased to 360 after the retirement of three judges.

Maldonado said she is “a very involved judge,” according to coverage by Law360. “I go back and forth with my law clerks on drafts. It’s not sometimes the most rapid process,” she said.

Maldonado has been rated well qualified by the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary.